Bivol realizes magnitude of moment: 'I could mark my name in history'
Faces fellow undefeated Artur Beterbiev in long-awaited showdown to crown first undisputed light heavyweight champion in 25 years
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Publicly, at least, Dmitry Bivol is man who shows little emotion. During a fight you’d be hard-pressed to know how he was doing by trying to read his body language.
It is always the same with Bivol: Calm, cool and collected. He is as poised as any fighter around, but he also knows his boxing and it is not lost on him the history he could accomplish.
Bivol, the WBA light heavyweight titleholder, and Artur Beterbiev, the lineal champion and also holder of the three other major belts of the WBC, WBO and IBF, are set to do battle for the highest stakes possible in their division: the undisputed championship.
They will meet in a long-awaited showdown to determined 175-pound supremacy in the main event of a Riyadh Season card dubbed the “IV Crown Showdown” on Saturday (ESPN+ for main event in U.S., 6 p.m. ET; DAZN PPV for undercard, 12 p.m. ET) at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The winner will make his case that he deserves a seat at the table with the clear-cut elite of the elite on the pound-for-pound list along with Oleksandr Usyk, Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue.
To many, Beterbiev-Bivol is as toss-up of a fight as can be made in boxing with a massive reward for the winner in a bout for which there is no rematch clause.
The victor will become not only the first undisputed light heavyweight champion of the four-belt era but the first undisputed champion in the division in 25 years. There has not been one since the great Roy Jones Jr. did the job by routing Reggie Johnson to unify the necessary three belts for such status at the time on June 25, 1999.
Bivol is aware of the history involved in his fight with Beterbiev and the emotion showed through, at least a little, when was asked recently about what it would mean to him to become the undisputed champion seven years after he claimed the WBA title.
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